As mentioned in yesterday's blog we had to leave early as we wanted to be in Hiraodai shortly after nine. Checking the fcst again before departure it seemed less optimistic than the evening before... But luckily we decided to give it a try anyway (also by lack of having better things to do), because the closer we got, the better sunnier it became and in the end the day has been much better than anticipated :-)
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| approaching Hiraodai: launch on the highest point |
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| Pano looking SE (towards LZ) |
Interestingly, in the end flying here at Hiraodai turned out to be much less 'troublesome' than we had assumed. As we had already submitted all necessary documents the evening before, they just wanted to see proof of my reserve having been repacked within the last 150 days and a short briefing about the LZ.
The briefing is a must, as the LZ sits actually on a small plateau, which acts also as a thermal trigger. The LZ is surrounded by many 'no-land-zones', rice fields and power lines. And of course having to pay the usual visitors fee: here 3'000JPY/ day and 1'000JPY/ ride to launch. 1'000 JPY for the ride is a pretty fiar price, as it takes almost 40' to reach the TO (via a private road, owned/ maintained? by the school).
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| Launch |
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| Pano looking East: Kitakyushu |
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| LZ: absolutely NO landing in the farmer's fields in the middle; if you're long, use the 'slot' to the right of these fields, which is leading from the 'cross' towards ESE. Also no ldg in ALL the fields (except LZ) one can see in this pix. |
I flew for 1.5.hrs in ever getting stronger conditions; and I needed at least 15' to get from the position in the pix above to the ground... When we left we have even be invited to come back any time; I assume that this means, that I (we) didn't 'misbehave' too much ;-)
On the way back Sushi-dinner with Yuko.
Once more a bleak outlook for the next day, with probably no flying.
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